Moonlight on Android

Re:Moonlight on Android by nuclear_eclipse on Friday April 15, 2011 @09:53AM (#2450526)

I wonder whether this would allow Netflix to more easily bring their streaming video service to Android...

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Re:Moonlight on Android by aplusbi on Friday April 15, 2011 @11:31AM (#2450843)

Probably not. Moonlight doesn't have the DRM necessary (and won't - MS has no intention of releasing it on Linux) and Netflix doesn't use Silverlight/MS DRM on phones anyway (AFAIK).

From what I understand, on the iPhone/iPad Netflix uses the DRM built into the device. Since Android phones are built by several different manufacturers there is no uniformity in hardware DRM (and some phones don't have any at all). I imagine that it's easier to get content providers to agree to use hardware DRM than software DRM which further complicates the issue.

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Re:Moonlight on Android by jstedfast on Friday April 15, 2011 @11:33AM (#2450853)

Well, if that's the case (Netflix taking advantage of the DRM built into the phones), then there's no reason Moonlight for Android can't take advantage of that, too.

Also, Microsoft has licensed their DRM for Linux on embedded devices in the past.

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Re:Moonlight on Android by aplusbi on Friday April 15, 2011 @01:37PM (#2451310)

Yes, but since Netflix doesn't use Silverlight for the iPhone/iPad it's not like it's going to make a difference one way or another.

MS has licensed their DRM, but they will not license it for use with Moonlight. From my understanding, the licensing they have done has generally for hardware (the NXP chip in the Roku box, for example).

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Re:Moonlight on Android by tzs on Friday April 15, 2011 @12:06PM (#2450955)

> MS has no intention of releasing it on Linux

More likely it is the content owners who have no intention of licensing the DRM for Linux.

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Re:Moonlight on Android by Rondrak on Friday April 15, 2011 @11:58AM (#2450935)

Take a look at http://forums.silverlight.net/forums/t/94992.aspx.

After the original post, most of them are "yeah right on!", or +1 type posts, until about 1/6 of the way down when streamOG begins chiming in. His posts get increasingly in depth and informative on the issue as the thread continues.

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Re:Moonlight on Android by zacharypinter on Friday April 15, 2011 @10:17AM (#2450620)

I don't believe the Moonlight guys support DRM, so it's the same situation as Netflix on Linux.

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Re:Moonlight on Android by jstedfast on Friday April 15, 2011 @10:25AM (#2450637)

Well, yes and no. From what I understand, Microsoft has been willing in the past to license their PlayReady DRM for use in embedded devices (which phones are). Will they be willing to license for Moonlight on Android? Who knows, but it's not a for-sure "no" yet. Of course, it's also not a "yes" either ;-)

AFAIK, we haven't even talked to them about it yet... this was kind of a last-minute hack for Mix11.

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Re:Moonlight on Android by cyrus_ on Friday April 15, 2011 @01:20PM (#2451230)

If you think Microsoft will voluntarily give a leg up to both Android and Mono, don't hold your breath.

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